Only three of nine cross-sectional studies found an association between empathy scores and a preference for people-orientated specialties¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Three studies detected higher levels of empathy among students who preferred a people-orientated specialty, while no association was found in the remaining six studies. → Andersen Freja Allerelli 2020 q2 i? None of the longitudinal studies examined specialty preferences. → Andersen Freja Allerelli 2020

Evidence¶

Andersen Freja Allerelli 2020¶

Andersen Freja Allerelli, Johansen Ann-Sofie Bering, Søndergaard Jens, Andersen Christina Maar, Assing Hvidt Elisabeth. (2020). Revisiting the trajectory of medical students' empathy, and impact of gender, specialty preferences and nationality: a systematic review. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-1964-5

q3 · i? · review · r3

Synthesis of the nine cross-sectional studies that investigated a possible relation between empathy scores and specialty preferences. The review reports that "Three studies detected higher levels of empathy among students who preferred a “people-orientated” specialty", with no association in the remaining six.

"Three studies detected higher levels of empathy among students who preferred a “people-orientated” specialty [28, 43, 45]. No association between specialty preferences and empathy scores was found in the remaining six studies."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Empathy levels among medical students show equivocal trajectories across educational years, with significantly lower levels reported in 14 of 30 studies and higher, mixed or unchanged levels in the remainder